Damon's Ascension-Chapter 155: Surrender

Unaware that they had been detected long ago, the Oxen Raiders continued to watch the horizon to see what the situation was when they finally spotted a black dot.

Even though The Normandy had cloaking measures, it was mostly for scanners and other detection technology. It was a warship meant to be visible on the battlefield while leading other ships to fight, so it did not come with ocular distortion tech.

This means that the Oxen Raiders were able to visually see it, and with their superior vision invested by their stats, they could even see the full scope of the Normandy from as far as where they stood.

The group were at first shocked, then awed by the majesty of the ship, feeling that this was something that a top race’s Prime Representative should be riding in. Just based on external visuals, the Normandy was stunning, worthy of its hefty price tag in Essence Coins.

However, while the others were awed, Gornash was grim. He directly stood up and canceled the cloaking procedure, coming to stand at the top of the nearby dune and kneeling down while looking upwards.

Seeing him, his crew were completely stunned. Had the boss gone mad with greed? What was he doing something so foolish as to give away our element of surprise!

If it wasn’t for his accumulated prestige among his group, they would have likely rebelled on the spot and cut him down. As it were, the group had angry and disappointed expressions on their visages, waiting on their boss to explain what the hell he was doing.

"Come and kneel, don’t waste time." Gornash commanded solemnly, not even turning back to look at them.

This command was something that they couldn’t accept, and Tellun made this clear as he point at Gornash’s back with indignation.

"Kneel? Why should we give up the initiative and hand our lives over to the other party, especially in the Chaos Realm? Who do you know is so benevolent as to spare passersby here?!"

His words made the others glance at Gornash with slight coldness, feeling that this was true. While they believed their commander had a good reason for this, they also knew that even if a fight was inevitable, they should not leave themselves open.

Gornash growled angrily. "Don’t waste the goodwill I am trying to build. Come and kneel and stop being fools, otherwise I don’t mind sacrificing you to clear my name!"

Hearing the threat of violence, the other oxen raiders felt a chill. Gornash was their leader not just because of his higher stats than theirs, but because he was the only one who possessed an awakened ability.

Even against other ability suers of the same rank, Gornash was not weak and could hold his own, much less against explorers like them who dotted the Chaos Realm in the billions.

If he got up and turned around to rip them apart, he could be done faster than that ship could arrive overhead!

Realizing this, the group could only share sullen and unwilling looks before coming to kneel down beside Gornash. They sincerely hoped this boss of theirs knew what he was doing, otherwise they were in for a serious catastrophe.

Meanwhile on the Normandy, Nicholas had a strange expression on his face as they approached the area of the Oxen Raiders. He turned to Damon and immediately informed him of the ’surrender’ of the Oxen Raiders, which left the entire Vanguard Team amused.

"Wait, but why surrender? Did they get awed by my awesome aura?" Henry asked with bright eyes.

"No, their boss realized our ship was too advanced to not be able to detect his bandit group, yet we still dared to come over. He knew the jig was up." Nicholas explained simply, giving Henry a side eye.

Damon stood from the captain’s seat as the Normandy hovered down near the dunes, eyes quietly scanning the six large Minotaur-like figures kneeling in the sand below.

Despite their size and clear physical power, they had placed themselves in submissive positions, one of them - presumably the leader - raising both hands slowly, unarmed.

Felicia stepped beside Damon at the viewport, folding her arms. "Well... they’re smart."

"No, just experienced. This likely isn’t the first time they’ve scouted prey too big to chew." Damon replied lightly, eyes sharp.

"Should we beam them up?" Protizen asked from the side, already running a scan of their physiology and energy levels.

’What are the chances that we are ambushed the moment we allow them onto our ship?’

[Objective chances are currently 0%.]

Damon raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Yes, let’s see what courage and fear looks like up close."

Within moments, six beams of controlled energy locked onto the kneeling Oxen Raiders, drawing them up through the belly of the ship and depositing them in the Normandy’s containment bay, which—thankfully—was large enough to fit their oversized frames.

The moment they arrived, the gravity in the bay shifted slightly to match Minotaur physiology, while a soft field shimmered across the room to restrict sudden lunges or aggressive movements.

The Oxen Raiders looked around warily, eyes flickering from the containment lights to the clean, high-grade panels of the Normandy. Then finally, their gazes landed on Damon and his crew as they entered.

Damon stopped a few meters away, flanked by Felicia and Nicholas, with the rest of the Vanguard in a loose semi-circle behind them.

He raised a hand gently.

"You have thirty seconds to explain yourselves, before I test the ship’s disintegration functions." Damon said, voice neutral.

Gornash stepped forward immediately and knelt again, lowering his head. "We are the Oxen Raiders of the 68th race, The Minotaurs and I, Gornash, am their leader. We detected your craft and its... prestige. We intended to observe only."

"Observe?" Felicia asked, tilting her head slightly.

She glanced at their equipment with a strange smile. "From the ridgeline... with cloaking beacons, scanner disruptors, and active magnetic spears?"

"Yes, observation... in full battle stance." Gornash said with a straight face. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Kyle snorted. "Man’s technically not lying."

Henry grinned. "Respect the hustle."

Damon didn’t laugh, his expression unreadable. "You’re not dead because I’m curious. Not because I’m merciful."

Gornash nodded quickly. "Understood, Prime Representative."

That made several of the Vanguard blink.

"You know who I am?" Damon asked with a slight tilt of his head.

"Of course, you’re the one who brought the human race to the fifth rank in a single generation. Even out here, stories travel fast. That ship... your aura... I made the call to kneel so we might live to raid another day." Gornash said solemnly.

Damon glanced at Nicholas, who gave a small confirming nod. "He’s not lying."

Damon turned back. "So why should I not throw you all into the dark reactor of the ship for attempting to rob us?"

Gornash didn’t hesitate. "Because we’re useful. We know this Sector and we know the next three Sectors too. We’ve mapped the Area patterns, hazard shifts, storm belts, and ambush points."

Bask, still kneeling, added quickly. "We’ve even documented micro-rules for some unstable Areas, the kind that change hourly, daily or infrequently. We’ve lost dozens of comrades learning those details. That data can be yours!"

Nicholas looked intrigued. "If they’re telling the truth, that’s gold."

Felicia’s eyes narrowed. "And what would you want in return?"

Gornash raised his head slightly. "A contract of survival. Let us live, let us serve and we’ll guide your paths for the time you’re in Sector 13. After that, we part ways clean."

"A guide service? That’s rare." Xela asked softly.

Connor nodded with interest. "Most bandits rather die than be leashed."

"We’re not prideful, we’re practical." Kragor said from behind, still kneeling but looking up cautiously.

"Besides, are we not already leashed? The Universe Will did not ask us if we were willing or not when it asked all sapient species to come and mine Chaos Essence for it." Gornash said rather intelligently, his eyes gleaming with something deep.

Damon’s eyes narrowed when he saw this, feeling as if he had learned something interesting. However, he wouldn’t be able to use this now, but in the future...

At that moment, Felicia turned to Damon. "It could help as we’re still adjusting to the Bright Realm changes. Having raw local data might reduce delays or any trouble we could encounter."

Damon regarded the Minotaurs for a long moment and agreed in his heart. When they downloaded information from the relay to plot their course, there was no mention of the Oxen Raiders here in it, so there were always hidden dangers that the publicly available data could not tell you.

In that situation, having someone in the know would always be more helpful than not.

Still he pretended to be in deep ponderance before, slowly, he said, "I’ll take your offer, conditional on full compliance and transparency."

Gornash bowed his head low. "Agreed."

Damon turned. "Protizen, escort them to Storage Deck C and monitor their movements. If one of them even farts against protocol, remove them."

Protizen nodded. "Understood."

As the Minotaurs were led away, Levi muttered. "So... from raiders to tour guides?"

Marshal cracked a rare smile. "Welcome to the Vanguard Team of the Human Race."